Share this:

Seven men were collared and 16 pooches were rescued when cops smashed a dogfighting ring in The Bronx, police said yesterday.

A dogfight was going on in the back yard of 108 E. 179th St. in Tremont when cops – acting on a tip from New Jersey state police – staged a raid at 11 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Spectators scattered as the cops nabbed the seven men and rescued the dogs, who fought in a 9-foot-by-9-foot fenced-in pit.

The leader of the ring wasn’t there when cops made the arrests, police sources said.

One of the animals appeared to be badly hurt, police said.

Officers recovered $2,000 in cash and syringes used to inject the dogs with stimulants.

The seven men were charged with felony animal fighting and participating in an animal fight, and misdemeanor charges of promoting gambling and owning an animal for fighting.

They were identified as Alexander Estephane, 44, who lives at the East 179th Street address; Lauritz Acoy, 41, of The Bronx; Eric Boyce, 33, also of The Bronx; Israel Cuevas, 34, of North Brunswick, NJ; Juan Toledo, 38, of Paterson, NJ; Alterik Mason, 29, of Newark; and Darnell Walker, 34, also of Newark.

“I love dogs. I love pit bulls,” said one of the arrested men as they were being led out of the 46th Precinct station house yesterday.

Robinson Fernandez, 33, a factory worker who has lived in the building for eight years, said the dog duels had been going on for three years.

He said tenants didn’t call the cops “because they’re afraid” of retaliation.